WEC 39 Notebook: Brown-Faber Rematch Next?

Not long after the World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight
champion dismantled Leonard
Garcia in the WEC 39 main event on Sunday in Corpus Christi,
Texas, attention turned to a potential rematch with the man he
dethroned in November. A second fight with promotional golden goose
Urijah
Faber waits in the wings.

“I would fight anybody,” Brown said. “There are a lot of guys
deserving of a shot, but I think the fans want to see me and Urijah
the most, so I think that makes a lot of sense. I wouldn’t want to
shortcut Jose Aldo or
Wagnney
Fabiano or anybody like that, but I think fans would like to
see Urijah and I fight again.”

Brown (21-4) snapped Faber’s 13-fight winning streak with a
first-round technical knockout at WEC 36 four months ago in
Hollywood, Fla. It marked Faber’s first defeat since September 2005
and put Brown on the map. Still, the American Top Team veteran did
not feel like the belt belonged to him until he made his first
successful title defense.

“I didn’t feel like the champion after I beat Urijah,” Brown said.
“It was a great fight for me and the best fight of my career, but I
still didn’t feel like the champ. I didn’t want to be a one-hit
wonder, easy come, easy go. I wanted to establish myself and win
another one, and I knew I had a world-class fighter ahead of me. It
was my night. I’m happy I established myself as the champ.”

Brown (21-4) won his ninth consecutive bout at Garcia’s expense, as
he submitted the Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts slugger with an
arm-triangle choke 1:57 into the first round. It took him 26 fewer
seconds to defend the belt than it took him to win it. Brown
floored Garcia with a right hand, opened a cut on his forehead and
went to work on a submission, first with a rear-naked choke and
then with the finisher.

“I don’t know why, but I trained harder for this one than I did the
Urijah fight,” Brown said. “Mentally, I was in a really good place.
I heard a lot of people saying, ‘You’re the best in the world.’
People are trying to say that, so I started thinking like that. I
actually pushed myself harder than I ever had before.”

File Photo/Sherdog.com

Jose Aldo wants
gold.

Featherweight Gold on Aldo’s mind

Aldo wants his name mentioned when talk turns to the top
featherweight contenders in the WEC.

One of the sport’s top prospects, the 145-pound juggernaut has
opened many an eye since he made his promotional debut in June. The
22-year-old Brazilian has finished four straight foes, including
decorated Shooto veteran Alexandre
Franca Nogueira, and appears to improve with each appearance.
Aldo (14-1) smashed through Chris
Mickle in just 99 seconds at WEC 39 and staked his claim as the
No. 1 contender in the featherweight division.

“My target is the title,” he told WEC.tv. “I’ll never stop before
the title or after the title. My motivation is to win all the time.
I come to fight. I love to fight. I’m prepared to fight anybody.”
An accomplished submission grappler, Aldo has developed into a
potent striker in mixed martial arts competition. He has rattled
off seven wins in a row since he suffered the lone setback of his
career at a Jungle Fight show in 2005. Eleven of his 14 victories
have come by knockout, technical knockout or submission.

With Brown focusing on a potential rematch with Faber, Aldo
understands he may still be one step away from a shot at the
belt.

“I’m trained to fight with the best guys -- Leonard
Garcia, Brown or Faber,” he said. “It doesn’t matter which
one’s the next fight for me.”

Page Leads Post-Fight Bonuses

Damacio
Page was rewarded for being the man behind perhaps the most
vicious knockout in WEC history.

The 26-year-old Page (11-4) left the world-ranked Marcos
Galvao unconscious against the cage in just 18 seconds at WEC
39, as he rebounded from his submission loss to top bantamweight
contender Brian
Bowles in August.

Medical personnel had to carry Galvao out of the cage. Page,
meanwhile, pocketed a $7,500 “Knockout of the Night” bonus. Even
so, it was not the quickest KO of his career. The K-1 veteran
knocked out Mark Haire in
just six seconds at a Fightworld event in 2006.

Other beneficiaries of the WEC’s post-fight generosity were Brown
-- who banked a $7,500 “Submission of the Night” bonus -- and
Johny
Hendricks and Alex
Serdyukov, who left with matching $7,500 “Fight of the Night”
bonuses. Hendricks, a two-time national champion wrestler at
Oklahoma State University, remained unbeaten as a professional and
now appears destined for the UFC welterweight division after he
earned a unanimous decision against Serdyukov.

This & That

Judges had a busy night at WEC 39, as more than a third of the 11
bouts on the card ended in split decisions. That did not include
former lightweight champion “Razor” Rob
McCullough’s majority decision victory against Marcus Hicks
… “The Ultimate Fighter” season one veteran Alex
Karalexis avoided the first three-fight losing streak of his
career when he stopped Greg
McIntyre on first-round strikes. The 31-year-old had not won in
almost two years … The three men who walked into the America Bank
Center with undefeated records -- John
Franchi (5-0), Ricardo
Lamas (6-0) and Hendricks (5-0) -- all walked out with their
unblemished marks intact. Lamas -- a late replacement for the
injured Rich
Crunkilton -- pulled the biggest surprise, as he outpointed
International Fight League veteran Bart
Palaszewski in a split decision … Franchi, Lamas and former
Sportfight welterweight champion Mike Pierce
all were victorious in their promotional debuts. Pierce (7-1) was
the only one of the three to finish his bout decisively, however,
as he christened the show with a third-round TKO against Justin
Haskins. The 28-year-old former carpenter has won four in a
row.